Choreography

“Draper masterfully choreographed Lembit Beecher’s And Then I Remember.” — Joel Luks, Culture Map
“Draper’s fluid, fresh, and forceful choreography will move your soul as it moved mine. Sara Draper’s four amazing dancers that comprise her Dancepatheatre are boundlessly breathtaking.” — Buzz Bellmont, Chron.com
“Every song recital henceforth should be modeled on Draper’s Five Tonadillas. Mezzo Shannon Langman moved expertly to Draper’s subtle choreography that easily matched the emotion of the Enrique Grenados songs, again ardently realized by pianist Hester…If only Callas had known Draper, what music they’d have made!” — D. L. Groover, Dance Source Houston
“Draper’s third offering, Body/Soul, a collaboration with poet/performer Elizabeth Gilbert, was by far the most moving dance of the evening.” — Nancy Wozny, ArtsHouston

Recent Work

Aerial Study #2

A new work by Sara Draper presented by Dance Source Houston in Twelve Minutes Max

January 17 & 18, 2014

7:30pm

The Barn, 2201 Preston St., Houston, TX 77004

Tickets and more details at www.dancesourcehouston.org

An interdisciplinary work in the air, written and choreographed by Sara Draper.

INTRODUCING SARA & NIURCA – MIXING FORMS, MIAMI TO HOUSTON

December 11, 2013, City Dance Studio, Independent Project

PREMIERE OF FIRST DAY OF SPRING

April 5-7, 2013, Lyndall Wortham Theatre, University of Houston, UH Ensemble Dance Works

Premiere of Aerial Study #1

Recognition for Sara Draper’s choreography includes an Individual Artist Fellowship from Houston Arts Alliance, three HAA Arts Project Grants, a Houston City’s Special Initiative Grant, a DiverseWorks Residency, and the 1995-96 Cultural Arts Council of Houston Creative Artist Award for her past choreography. Her work for University of Houston was selected to be performed at The Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. for the 1998 National American College Dance Festival, when she was also nominated for the Dance Magazine Award. Her works have been selected by adjudication for two Dance Houston Galas and commissioned by Several Dancers Core programs, Twelve Minutes Max, Joan Karff’s New Dance Group, Houston Contemporary Dance Company, the JCC’s Summer Dance Initiative, and Houston International Festival. She has choreographed and performed in Bourges, France and collaborated on a dance project in Merida, Mexico. She has set repertory works on university ensembles, Chrysalis Dance Company, and her own company, Dancepatheatre.

Sara began choreographing for professional dancers and productions in 1980, and has choreographed countless student works, recitals, and musical theater productions since 1974. Although she has choreographed some musical theater and experimental tap, her overwhelming focus has been on modern dance. She has choreographed over fifty works.

Sara has commissioned or collaborated with composers Malcolm Smith, Sharon Joy, Ray Dillard, and Aaron Hermes. She has incorporated live music into fifteen of her works. Besides the musicians above, she has worked with pianist Timothy Hester, harpist Martha Gay and cellist Pete Gorish, violinist Nicholas Leh Baker and clarinetist Maiko Sasaki; singers Sharon Colbert, Julia Kay and Mark Laskowski, Shannon Langman, and Isabelle Ganz; with Opera Vista, Foundation for Modern Music, the Balalaika Orchestra, The Cimarron Wind Quintet, Cantiga, and with Dancepatheatre’s Al Andalus Orchestra.

Choreographic partners for past works include Laura Steckler, Lucia Rodriguez-Sanchez, Kristina Koutsoudas, Priscilla Nathan-Murphy, Sandra Marcello, and Amy Ell. She has also collaborated with writers/spoken word artists Elizabeth Gilbert and Donna Garrett. For Dancepatheatre’s Al Andalus Project, scholars, translators and performers from Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Israel, Gaza, Palestine, Morocco, and Cuba, joined her to create an inspiring multicultural project in Houston. Seven of her works have two or more languages in the text or lyrics.

Sara founded Dancepatheatre in 1999 and through it has created works that fuse modern dance with story, word, and voice. She most recently choreographed a new opera, And Then I Remember, through Dancepatheatre in collaboration with Opera Vista, performed March 12 and 19, 2011. She is currently collaborating with a team of talented interdisciplinary artists to create a new Dancepatheatre work that will premiere in the June 2011 Big Range Dance Festival.